ANYONE CAN BE A HEALER January 16, 2006 Issue

Next in our biweekly series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science.

NEVER TOO EARLY

EVA-MARIA HOGREFE—-Boston, Massachusetts

AS A CHILD, I had an innocent willingness to comfort and help others, and to pray and trust God.

For example, I remember a man who had accidentally cut his hand on the moving blade of a threshing machine. As a French prisoner of war, he was working on a farm in a village in Germany, where I lived during World War II. When I saw him hurt, not knowing where to turn for help, I took his free hand and gently reassured him in German, "Es ist schon gut," that is, "It's all right!" And I indicated that I could pray for him. He nodded, "Oui, tres bien!" So I did pray for him as we were walking together down the village road. It came to me to take him to my mother, who spoke French. She sent him to a villager, who competently cleaned his wounds and bandaged his hand. After his hand had healed, he came back to thank my mother and me.

I recall how good this had made me feel inside. I think, through this and other experiences like it, I early on formed my own moral perspective: To comfort is to bless, and to be blessed. With childlike simplicity, I intuitively trusted God, and listened to His "still small voice" (I Kings 19:12). A poem by A. E. Hamilton describes this feeling:

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